South star Prithviraj wants to give more time to Bollywood

Mumbai: South star Prithviraj Sukumaran, whose Aiyyaa opposite Rani Mukherjee is set for a release this week, has decided to slow down in south cinema and focus more on doing Bollywood films.

Prithviraj has done more than 80 films down south in different languages -- Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. He is best known for films Vaasthavam, Indian Rupee, Classmates, Mani Ratnam`s Raavanan and Urumi, among others. "I think down south I am at a stage where I am looking forward to slowing down on work. I have done so many films in the past 12 years. I want to take it easy and slowly now and do one or two films a year," Prithviraj told PTI in an interview. "So in south especially, two films in Malayalam means three months of your time and the remaining nine months of the time I plan to dedicate for my new-found Hindi (film) career if there is going to be one at all, which I should hopefully know by October 12 (release date of Aiyyaa)," he said. Presently, Prithviraj also has Yash Raj Films` Aurangzeb in his hand, in which he will be seen alongside Arjun Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Amrita Singh, among others. "All the films that I have signed or I intend to sign are purely on the basis of merit of what the films are about. As long as interesting work will find me, I will love to do more Bollywood films," he said. However, Prithviraj clarified that doing a Bollywood movie was not always on his radar. "I never went and searched for a Bollywood film. It just happened naturally... it was a natural course. But there were offers from Bollywood before. Aiyyaa was not the first film that I was offered in Hindi... it was the first film that I wanted to do in Hindi," he said. If one item song was not enough, Rani has done three item numbers in Aiyyaa, with Dreamum Wakeupm being a south Indian dance number, Aga Bai Halla Machae Re a belly dance number and Sava Dollar– a lavani song. The songs are shown as part of the dreams and fantasies of the character played by Rani and Prithviraj appears in all these songs. "I am completely enjoying it. I had fun doing the item songs. I am among the very few item boys as I don`t see them around, I must be in a privileged class," Prithviraj said. Now that south films are getting remade in Hindi and succeeding at the box office, Prithviraj feels it is a great phenomenon. "It means the sensibilities are becoming more and more universal, it is like a good concept can be accepted anywhere in the country," he said. PTI